Aviation Day USA 2018 takes place this year in The Pierre New York, Fifth Avenue, on 22 February. This joint event with IATA and the Wings Club brings together senior airline and airport executives, and government authorities to discuss aviation’s opportunities and key challenges. Across all functions, the industry is confident. IATA’s most recent Airline Business Confidence Index (January 2018 survey) confirms that the outlook and profit expectations are positive. 86% of airline respondents surveyed said they expect passenger volumes to increase over the coming year, with 56% saying they expect profitability to improve over the same period. While this year’s Aviation Day USA will discuss the future challenges facing aviation, many of these only emerge because we work in a dynamic and growing industry. Building airline retailing, traffic growth, ‘the future is supersonic’ – these are just some of the topics up for discussion, and are the types of opportunities associated with rapid growth that make aviation one of the most exciting, diverse and rewarding industries to be in. This means that it’s time not just to reap rewards, but also to prepare for the future. Global passenger traffic will grow to somewhere between 6 and 7 billion by 2035. However the growth path will not be straight, easy or fairly distributed. New markets will emerge and some will stagnate; economies will expand and contract; airports and other infrastructural dependencies will come under pressure; fuel prices will rise. These are real eventualities that will affect our flourishing industry. So now is the time for airlines to make sure that they prepare for these inevitabilities and future-proof their business. At the IATA Aviation Day USA, Datalex CEO Aidan Brogan will be taking part in the panel ‘Together, Let’s Build Airline Retailing’. Airline retailing has become a strategic pillar for many of the world’s leading airlines. Creating and cultivating a well-defined retail strategy today, allows the airline to be agile tomorrow – to innovate, to react and to compete, regardless of the external factors that will affect the business. At the heart of the strategy, a robust digital commerce platform empowers the airline to execute its business and revenue objectives, seamlessly integrate itself into the digital ecosystem, and control offer and order management to optimize the customer experience and loyalty. Investing in critical airline retailing systems and processes now, enables the airline to avoid heavy-lifting in the future, and instead focus on fine-tuning. So how do you build airline retailing? Click here to read more on what those building blocks are; from digital transformation, to pricing to payments – Datalex pieces together the elements required to build your airline retail strategy with confidence into the future.

 

For more information on the IATA Aviation Day USA 2018 and to register, click here or contact Datalex.